Thursday, July 14, 2011

New electricity billing

Starting on Friday we're going to be charged time-of-use rates for our power. To do this they've apparently installed a Smart Meter that can track not just how much electricity is used - which is what regular meters do - but also when that electricity is used. These meters were installed province wide by 2010 so it must have been installed before we moved in to the house. Unlike some smart meters, the ones we have don't show our electricity usage.

We'll be charged three different rates depending on the time of day: off-peak, mid-peak, and on-peak, and the mid- and on-peak times are different in summer and winter. Saturday 7am - Monday 7am and weekdays 7pm - 7am are always off-peak and are charged the cheapest rates. On-peak hours are weekdays 11am - 5pm (summer) and weekdays 7am - 11am and 5pm - 7pm (winter) and are charged not quite double the off-peak rates. Mid-peak hours are the remaining hours and the rate is in-between the two.